Monday, December 12, 2011

Memphis Must

Birds Net Egg Roll at Saigon Le, Memphis, TN

I love stumbling upon interesting foods. Foods that you have to work with first to eat. There is a great little Vietnamese restaurant in Memphis called Saigon Le. And they have this fun, and delicious appetizer called a Birds Net Egg Roll. For years, I thought it was called the Birds NEST Egg Roll. But either I am a total idiot, or they have a misprint on their menu, because it clearly says Birds NET (and, I distinctly listened to her repeat it back to us as birds net. So I guess that makes me a total idiot).

Anyways, it's an egg roll filled with pork and shrimp and probably cabbage, carrot and other goodness, and then it looks to be wrapped in some sort of noodle and fried. I could be totally wrong here. There may be a sweet technique to making a batter turn out this way, but I'm gonna stick to my guns and say this is some kind of noodle. The browned, beautiful little nets arrive at your table (6-8 of them) atop a bed of romaine lettuce, mint and cilantro leaves. It's served with a little bowl of fish sauce for dipping.

The best way to eat them, in my opinion, is to lay a piece of romaine down on your plate, top it with a birds net, squeeze on a line of Sriracha, top that with a few mint and a few cilantro leaves, roll it up in the lettuce, dip it in the fish sauce and chow down.

If you live in Memphis and have never eaten it (I lived here for a good 4 years without discovering it), TRY IT. If you are visiting Memphis and are looking for some good grub, GO THERE. And if you don't ever plan to come to Memphis, YOU'RE AN IDIOT AND ARE MISSING OUT!